Dustin Hoffman To Direct BBC Comedy

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: In this youth-obsessed age, it’s nice to see BBC Films taking a risk on a 72-year-old first-time director. Dustin Hoffman is in talks to replace Richard Loncraine as director of Quartet starring Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. The pic about retired opera singers is based on a 1999 stage comedy by Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Pianist. Finola Dwyer, one of the producers of An Education, is currently in Los Angeles working on the project.